For those who don’t know, Bastion received a buff with the launch of this new season. The buff in question increased his rate of fire for his Configuration: Recon weapon (the arm gun one, not the turret) by 20%.
Now, this may not seem like a huge deal because the rate of fire was quite slow to begin with. But it begs the question of why it was slower than most weapons to begin with. It’s because it’s basically a slower firing speed Soldier: 76 gun with zero recoil.
So, in short, Bastion now has only a slightly larger hitbox and slightly lower rate of fire compared to Soldier in exchange for: virtually zero weapon recoil, access to Configuration: Assault for massive dps to shred through enemy Tanks and barriers, spammable grenades every time he reconfigures (so basically better Soldier rockets) and a major perk for on-demand and portable self healing.
I adore Bastion, he is my most played hero by a LONG SHOT. Played him relentlessly through all of OW1’s life and still play him constantly in 2. But man, this really is not it. This is busted. Bastion has the highest win rate in the top ranks for Damage heroes. I want him to be viable, not broken. Revert this buff please, otherwise I fear he will become public enemy number one and get dumpstered.
It’s still not quite Soldier levels of DPS, but a 20% buff was too much. I get that they want recon to be better, but it’s still supposed to be his downtime from sentry mode. If anything, I’d rather they would have buffed or reworked his terrible ultimate.
Virtually no weapon recoil for Bastion in comparison to Soldier is not really an argument tbh because Soldier baby recoil on his weapon means nothing. It’s very easy to control. I’m saying this as his Soldier player, not as hater (though his haters love to use this argument ). We’ll have to see how this Bastion buff pans out on the rest of the season but currently i have no issues with this buff as historically Bastion has been on the lower side of winrates.
He is definitely overtuned, but I think you understate his weaknesses.
His hitbox is HUGE, even after the hitbox reduction, not "slightly larger” than Soldier’s. On top of that, his only form of movement is a grenade (which is better used for damage) which is on a cooldown and barely moves him anywhere. In contrast, Soldier can run around the map constantly (especially with the sprint major perk), has an average hitbox size, and his damage output is generally a lot more ‘reliable’ even if it’s a bit on the lower side. His recoil is pretty negligible on PC, idk about console.
He might do a load of damage with the new patch, but shooting him is like shooting fish in a barrel, and he’s so sluggish.
bastion is still massive, has a huge headshot hitbox compared to any other dps, no mobility besides his grenades, his ult is kinda meh.
Bastion needs setup and a team to play with, if hes alone without shield or backup, you can easily punish him. He finally is able to do dmg outside of his turret form. good change imo
Blizzard keeps doing this thing where they try to improve on a hero’s weak areas when there’s a reason the hero had those weak areas in the beginning.
Bastion can do amazing damage while in pew pew mode and the trade off is supposed to be that he’s much weaker / less bursty in his standard form.
That shouldn’t be a problem because it’s a trade-off. It’s up to people who like the character to figure out how to monopolize the moments he’s bursty and also coordinate with their team to keep themselves alive when they’re more vulnerable.
Late to this thread. I’m only an ok player on good days. And not at all - good on most days. I like playing as Bastion bc… no recoil and my innate mediocre gaming ability. But now when I play as him I’m a freakin god. In a quick match recently, 6 v 6 in the end I had over 14000 dmg and 46 kills with a 29 player kill streak. Granted this is an outlier. But that is a personal best match by far. It was fun, but I’m just waiting for the 20% rate of fire increase to be reduced.
). We’ll have to see how this Bastion buff pans out on the rest of the season but currently i have no issues with this buff as historically Bastion has been on the lower side of winrates.
